The invention relates to a door handle for a vehicle. The supporting member, on the one hand, and the handle, on the other hand, are connected to each other at the door, in particular, on a door skin, from opposite sides. Such an exterior door handle is known from DE 44 45 320 A1. Such exterior door handles have at least one lever pivotably supported on the supporting member to which the handle is attached with its one handle end. In order to be able to accomplish this easily, the lever must be positioned in a specific rotated position. In order to achieve this, the prior art requires stopping elements which are difficult to handle.
The object of the invention is to develop an inexpensive door handle of the aforementioned kind, which can be mounted on the door easily and quickly. This is accomplished, according to the invention, in that a retaining element, controlled automatically between an active retaining position and an inactive release position, is arranged between the supporting member and the lever, in that, when mounting the supporting member on the door, the retaining element for connecting the handle is first positioned in its retaining position in which it holds the lever in its rotated position, and that the casing upon insertion into the supporting member automatically moves the retaining element into its release position, where the lever is released.
There are external door handles of a different type in which the handle is initially preassembled with the supporting member and forms a complete structural unit which is mounted only subsequently as a whole unit in a door cutout. For this purpose, the structural unit is passed through a setting movement from the outer door side into the door cutout of the door skin. The supporting member is provided with locking elements which are first in an inoperative position and moved to the rear side of the door skin, while border zones of the supporting member rest against the exposed side of the door skin. The locking elements are then transferred into their operative position where they engage behind the rear side of the door skin and fasten the structural unit at the door in this manner.
There are also external door handles in which the transfer of the locking elements from their inoperative position into their operative position is effected by a first actuation of the handle. In DE 44 43 117 A1, the locking elements are composed of a slide member which is longitudinally guided on the rear side of the supporting member. The manipulating device mounted, on the supporting member has a cam which, when the handle is actuated, makes contact with the slide member and transfers the slide member into its operative position. In EP 0 724 052 B1 and DE 696 03 756 T2, the locking elements are composed of a wedge which is pushed by a cam at the handle during the actuation of the handle underneath the beam of a T-shaped retaining element which is arranged in the border area of the supporting member. In this case, in addition to the door cutout in the door skin, slots are necessary in the door skin in order to thread the T-beam during the assembly of the structural unit therethrough. Because of the already completely preassembled structural unit, it is also in these external door handles not necessary to pay attention to the connection of the handle to the supporting element during the assembly.
In the external door handles according to the preamble of claim 1, initially the supporting member is fastened to the rear side of the door and only then is the handle mounted from the outer side of the door. It is important to connect at least one handle end of the handle to a lever which is already pivotally mounted on the attached supporting member. In order to facilitate this connection of the handle end to the lever, it is important to transfer the lever into a rotated-out position near the door cutout and to maintain this rotated-out position until the connection of the handle is completed. For this purpose, locking means were required in the prior art, for example, screws which had to be moved in a cumbersome manner into their locking positions and then had to be released again from the locking positions.
The object of the invention is to develop an inexpensive door handle of the kind described in the preamble of claim 1, which makes it possible to easily and quickly assemble the supporting member and the handle. This is accomplished, according to the invention, by the features specified in claim 1, which have the following special meaning.
In the external door handle according to the invention, a retaining element is used which is a fixed component of the support member or lever and usually, as long as the casing is not yet inserted into the supporting member, retains the lever in a defined rotated position. This supporting member is always effective without casing, so that the lever only has to be rotated outwardly by an appropriate extent in order to secure the lever in the desired rotated position. The assembly of the handle on the rotated lever can then be carried out.
A deactivation of the supporting member also does not require a separate actuation because the insertion movement of the casing in the supporting member assumes this function. It is sufficient to insert the casing as intended at the prescribed location in the supporting member from the outer side of the door. This insertion movement of the casing is utilized for transferring the retaining element into its release position. The lever is released from then on and permits the unhindered actuation of the handle at the door.
Consequently, the disassembly of the handle from the supporting member can be carried out in a similarly simple manner as the above-described assembly. It is sufficient for this purpose to pull the casing once again out of the supporting member. The retaining element then once again becomes operative and, for this reason, the rotated position of the lever is once again secured during the subsequent actuation of the handle. The handle can then be easily and quickly separated from the lever and be replaced by a new handle. Accordingly, the activation and deactivation of the retaining element during the assembly and disassembly takes place automatically as a result of the removal and insertion of the casing in the supporting member.